The positions of the President, Prime Minister, Members of the Judiciary, Ministers and Members of Parliament and those of Provincial, District, Municipal, Urban Councils and Secretaries of Ministries, Ambassadors and top administrative officials who are public servants are vested with authority and high responsibility. People have been accustomed to hold them, the persons and their positions, in great respect and honour as they are in charge of the just well-being, security, protection, progress and peaceful co-existence of all the citizens of Sri Lanka. Their positions are not only prestigious, they are given the facility of many privileges to equally serve all the people and are handsomely paid.
They have awarded themselves privileges beyond decent measures. And notably since 1956, the quality of the persons as well as their performance had much deteriorated due to those holding them being fraudulent and given to corruption that they have come to be considered the poor people’s shameful exploiters having no conscience in them.
CONCERN OF ALL FOR THE NATION
To live as a civilized and cultured people, we need to rediscover genuine industriousness, consistent dedication, honesty, truthfulness and justice, respect for one another, unaffected fraternity, and intercommunity solidarity and rebuild our Nation. Helping the helpless, loving kindness, patience and humility are virtues that should get instilled in the young in every home.
The failure is prominently surfaced nationally when a poor mother has to make a special appeal to a Vice Chancellor to protect her son from the murderous wickedness of raggers. Do these raggers also profess to establish a ‘Bauddha Rajya’ while committing such malevolent evil antithetical to the noble teachings of the compassionate Buddha? Of course not. Religion does not enter these aspects of their university life.
A high sense of social sensitivity, service to the national community, responsibility, respect and decency and transparent accountability should be there in all those occupying the summits of political and administrative power. They should all prioritize the people. They cannot subvert the common good and see to their personal comfort and safeguard their personal and political interests, damaging their party and subverting the interests of the country.
The people also observe an abysmal lowering of the sense of responsibility and accountability on the part of elected representatives as well as the members of the public service. They are unconscionable and are very inventive in plundering state resources and lavish in spending the tax-payers money in a manner that circuitously brings them various kinds of profit.
One is prompted to ask whether the elected representatives and public officials have individually and collectively lost their common sense to such an extent that the care and concern for the whole country is overlooked. The irreplaceable concern of all the high officials for the common good needs to be firmly restored and the concern of all for all the people of the Nation has to be re-established beginning it in all the homes and educational institutions.
DON’T CREATE NEW PROBLEMS
In our pluralist society various ethnic, religious and socio-cultural communities have lived peacefully side by side for centuries without any untoward conflict. The politicians should not use the State apparatus to let any suspicion and hate arise in the people. Some uneducated and defectively educated people should not be transformed into bigoted and prejudiced persons sick in heart and sick in head with inflexible awkward thoughts who get instigated and roused up as unthinking mobs going on the rampage on shallow side issues of race and religion.
It is time that the religious leaders gave respectable leadership to the people reminding them to follow the precepts of patience, kindness and fraternity with people of all communities. The unprecedented shining examples of Buddhist monks actively assisting in the cleaning up and restoration of order in Christian church premises after the Easter Sunday bomb blast was indeed very attractive and inspiring. It is an aspect of concern for others.
Rather than well thought out circumspect and intelligent decisions, deep-set feelings and momentary political expediency seem to work themselves out in the public square. Even when caught up in an avalanche of criticism, some are ready to defend the indefensible. That is not a reasonable position for those in the summits of power to be in. Due to a lack of a clear and realizable vision, politicians grope in the dark, bound in unbreakable chains of their own making and find fault with everyone else except themselves.
Paradoxically politicians forget that people matter more than shifting political stances. This is the tragic situation in which the top men of the country find themselves in. Their culpable ignorance and personal inadequacy disrupt the country. They should not be allowed to confuse the relationships among the people and create new problems.
SALVATION BY HONEST PEOPLE
In a political environment of unheard of irresponsibility, equivocation and ambiguity, responsible citizens with a high sense of concern for the whole Nation have to come forward to give leadership to the democratic people who are fed up with catastrophic political myths and the cabals of the political party outfits mustering supporters to capture power at the forthcoming elections. In a climate of near desperation, the new young voters as well as the disappointed older generation have to be convinced by a band of honest, truthful and just men and women who would do what needs to be done to save the Nation from an impending catastrophe.
The future of Sri Lanka is in the hands of the majority of the democratic people who must install a new administration that concerns itself with all the citizens of Sri Lanka and will handle all responsibilities intelligently. To do so the leaders of the people need to be honest and of a high intellectual calibre; they will have to work hard and be prepared to persuade everyone to bear the brunt of hardships for a period of time, till the whole country could once again confidently hold its head high.
This very challenging and high resolve could be realized only by a new band of honest men and women ready to sacrifice themselves to raise Sri Lanka from the miry depths into which it has been thrown by the parties and politicians who have governed her since 1956.
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